Throwing Muses : Morning Birds

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"Morning Birds"

(written by Kristin Hersh)

Morning Birds 1:

Rain

I couldn't sleep anyway

I couldn't sleep anyway (sleep anyway)

The hole you left is full of rain

The hole you left is full of rain (the hole you left is full of)

Rain

The hole you left is full of rain

The hole you left is full of rain (the hole you left is full of rain)

Rain

Morning birds screamed all night

If there was just a little light left

Something to grow into panic

Homeless, coming home

I could not stop moving, now

I can't move

I miss you

I bet I take this lying down

Morning Birds 2:

You know it'd be a justified sin

You know it'd be clean

You know it'd be purifying

You know it'd be clean

Morning birds screamed all night

If there was just a little fright left

Something to grow into panic

Homeless, coming home

I could not stop moving, now

I can't move

I miss you

I can't move

I miss you

Guitar Tab (Courtesy of Red Eyes)

APPEARS ON:

- Crooked Beginnings, 2010 (Kristin Hersh solo)

TRIVIA:

- Parts 1 and 2 were originally the same song.

WORDS FROM KRISTIN:

"We stopped somewhere in the south on the last tour to put my band in a motel and park our tour bus outside of it. On tour, Billy and I sleep with the dumpsters and the parking lot animals.

I like dumpsters; you can throw garbage in them. And I like parking lot animals 'cause they have a hard time but they make the best of it. They're also fun to watch in the morning while I drink my tea and wait for the band to wake up and bring me oranges and little boxes of cereal from the breakfast bar.

Sometimes parking lot animals are excellent: giant roaches, squirrels, peregrine falcons, snakes. Sometimes, they're just fine, like the morning birds that wake all southerners at dawn. Morning birds (there are many different kinds -- all they gotta do is wake up and start singing in order to fall into this category) remind me of my childhood in Georgia. I love lying on my bus bed and listening to them, wondering where the hell I am.

Except the birds that sang to us this particular morning began singing at a time that was only technically morning, like three minutes past midnight or something. And they sounded awfully...agitated. We spent a restless night hoping they were okay and wishing they'd shut up even if they weren't.

Somehow, they made it into a song.

I especially like the hypnotic repetition in the first part of this track. Each instrument is playing its own loop; only the rhythm guitar and bass are playing together. The resultant cacophony is not as unsettling as you might think, given that your ear learns a bit more of each part as it goes by.

The quiet part, I couldn't make quiet enough. I just pulled instruments out, then pulled out more until I had only sweet/sad left. Something about a "purifying sin" demands a certain amount of respect and, for a musician, that usually means get out of the way.

Love, Kristin"

Don't worry, dance in the road.